My friend Mike Simonsen posted this on Twitter a couple of weeks ago, in response to someone saying they wanted to buy their first home in 2020 (note – he said “do” try and time the market … he meant “don’t):

100% correct. There is no timing the real estate market, Mike’s exactly right. And he should know – as the CEO of Altos Research, one of the premier real-time real estate data firms around, Mike knows market timing better than most. You cannot time the market, at least not intentionally; sometimes you might get lucky and sell at a real peak, or buy at a real valley, but the reality is that without the benefit of hindsight we simply don’t know that we’ve reached the peak, or climbed out of the bottom. Which leads me to my second point … I replied:

As Realtors we have a fiduciary responsibility to our sellers to help them sell for as much as they can get in the market they’re in, and when we’re representing buyers, helping them buy as great a deal as we can in the market they’re in. But if we’re pitching that you need to make a quick decision and buy now, you can rest assured that that agent is only serving one person, and it’s not you. The market you’re in is the market you’re in – unless you’re simply not going to buy, you can’t avoid what the market gives you. So work with an agent who listens to what you’re targeting, tries to help you find that, and helps you navigate things at your pace, not theirs. I promise – you’ll have a much more enjoyable experience.

Thanks, Mike, for the prompting.

PS – also avoid that agent who alternately says both “it’s a great time to buy!” and “there’s never been a better time to sell!” They are mutually exclusive of each other. Don’t do it. Seriously.